A Unity of Expectations

A certain unifying reality is continuously imposing itself upon us, all of us, regardless of how we choose to define ourselves or each other. This reality is called Modernity, and it is in fact a process, a very ruthless process, despite the ennobling ideas born out of it and those that gave it birth.

It is so, because it is uncompromising in its demand that our very sense of identity should be as fluid, continuous and, so seemingly unending, as history itself. Modernity does not accommodate a rigid sense of identity, those who exhibit or insist on having such a sense will always be in conflict with Modernity even when they seem reconciled with it. Continue reading “A Unity of Expectations” →

Clash of Civilizations or Conflict of Interests?

A Heretic’s Log: A series of philosophical essays written between September 20, 2002 and July 15, 2004.

The whole thesis of a clash of civilization could be approached and refuted from a variety of angles. One such important angle is that there are indeed no civilizations, but only one global civilization (western, so far) encompassing many cultures, with each culture witnessing an internal clash of values between modernity and tradition giving birth in the process to various fundamentalisms: Christian, Islamic, Jewish, Hindu, etc. Continue reading “Clash of Civilizations or Conflict of Interests?” →

Dialogue, or Negotiations?

A Heretic’s Log: A series of philosophical essays written between September 20, 2002 and July 15, 2004.

What does it mean to be patriotic these days? To love a given homeland? To have national belonging? Perhaps even a faith? Conversely, what does it mean to renege and betray? Or, more interestingly, to have a national or confessional enemy?

Indeed, what do any of these things mean these days, when borders, physical and mental, seem more foolish and macabre than they have ever been before? When no more mysteries seem to be left in the world? Or, to be more exact, when Science has managed to demystify the Unknown, and Technology has overcome Distance?[1] Continue reading “Dialogue, or Negotiations?” →

Manifest Destiny Manifest Terror: The World in the Grips of Victimary and Triumphalist Mentalities

A Heretic’s Log: A series of philosophical essays written between September 20, 2002 and July 15, 2004.

The source of future troubles for the world, troubles that can indeed threaten the very continuity of modern civilization, no matter how one defines it: Western, Christian, Secular, or simply human, is not terrorism per se, and is not simply the resentment that the people of the underdeveloped world harbor towards more developed countries, as some do indeed assert. Nor does it squarely lie in the triumphalist attitude exhibited by the peoples and governments of the developed countries – in that sense of hubris that imbues all of their actions and modes of address vis-à-vis everything “other.” Continue reading “Manifest Destiny Manifest Terror: The World in the Grips of Victimary and Triumphalist Mentalities” →